Case Study 2 - 1970s free standing brick house, western Sydney

Our Green Home Assessment identified opportunities for the house to:

Even though the house's electricity consumption was around the NSW state average of 7MWh a year it achieved only a 2 star 'below average performer' NABERs energy rating. We conducted a Green Home Assessment and identified several opportunities for the household to improve its eco-performance and save money in the process.

Below is a quick summary of a few of the ways we found to green their home.

GreenPower The house did not purchase any GreenPower. We found that supplying the house with 100% accredited GreenPower would cost an additional $373 a year, raising the annual electricity spend by 45%. This could save 7.6 tonnes of greenhouse emissions a year.

Replace incandescent lamps with CFLs
The household used a large number of highly inefficient 60W and 100W incandescent lights. We calculated that replacing their incandescent lights with new high efficiency CFL lights could save 683kWh of electricity a year and $74 off electricity bills.

Replace 50W downlights with high efficiency downlights There were several 50W halogen downlights in use in the kitchen and dining area. Replacing the inefficient downlights with high efficiency 35W Infra Red (IR) reflecting downlights could save 56kWh of electricity a year. 35W IR downlights are a drop-in-replacement for standard downlights and do not require an electrician. They use 30% less energy without any reduction in light output.

Install solar hot water
The cost and functionality of any solar hot water system is dependent on several factors including the type of collector used to capture the solar radiation, the method of storing the hot water and the method of heating the water when solar radiation isn’t sufficient (boosting). A natural gas boosted solar hot water system is generally recognised to be the most energy efficient option.

Replacing their existing gas storage hot water system with a gas boosted solar hot water system could save 5,876MJ of natural gas a year and save $222 off gas bills.

The house was not eligible to receive the national Solar Hot Water Rebate as the rebate is only eligible to households that replace an existing electric storage hot water system

Install solar panels We calculated that installing solar panels with a capacity of a 1kW could provide around 1,400kWh of green solar energy a year, equating to 20% of their annual electricity usage. This could save $190 a year off electricity bills. The house is eligible to receive a $8,000 rebate through the Australian Governments Photovoltaic Rebate Program.

Harvesting rainwater With a usable roof area of 100m2 we calculated that installing a 10kW rainwater tank would provide up to 66kL of rainwater a year; more than enough to supply the toilet, washing machine and garden. With the current rebate of $1,500 offered by Sydney Water the installation cost of the rainwater tank was estimated to be $1,520.

Want more information?
Contact us for more information or to request a Green Home Assessment.